KUWAIT - Mustapha Badreddine, one of four Hezbollah members whose names are included in
the indictment report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq
Al-Hariri, is well-known to Kuwait's security authorities due to his involvement in
terrorist incidents in the Gulf nation in the early eighties.

Most people in Kuwait are more familiar with him by his alias 'Elias Al-Saab,'
the extremist who forced his strong personality on guards and inmates of the Central
Prison where he served time for the bombings of the US and French embassies in Kuwait back
in 1983, in which 63 people died.

Badreddine, who used the 'Elias Al-Saab' pseudonym to enter
Kuwait earlier in the year, was arrested one month after the attacks when he was caught
loitering suspiciously around the then-state security headquarters in Dasman. He was
subsequently jailed for his involvement in planting explosive material on the trucks that
targeted the two embassies, as well as the Shuaiba power plant.

In jail, Badreddine, an amputee with a wooden leg, quickly
became best known for his aggressive attitude. At one point, he attacked a guard, slashing
him across the face with a sharp razor; during questioning about the incident, he told
officers that he had actually wanted to "cut [the guard's] head off." Badreddine
also told the prosecutor in his case that he didn't recognize Kuwait's sovereignty.

Saab was very hardheaded, and I was always caught off guard
by is barbaric way of speaking", said the social supervisor assigned to handle Badr
Badreddine's case at the time. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official recalled
that Badreddine addressed him by the moniker 'Bright lightning,' rather than using his
name or job title. "He would threaten me constantly, either with harm to myself or my
family members who, surprisingly enough, he knew the names of," the official added.

Eventually, 'Bright lightning' grew so concerned at the
repeated threats against him that he asked Badr Badreddine's fellow detainee, Yousef
Al-Musawi, to intervene. "Al-Musawi was the leader of the group that committed the
bombings," the official explained. "After obtaining enough information to
confirm this truth, I realized that asking him to explain to Saab that my duty there was
only to help was the only way to make the threats stop.

In 1988, top Hezbollah militant Imad Mughniya led an
operation in which a Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) plane was hijacked in Bangkok,
Thailand and forced to fly to Algeria with more than 110 people on board. One of the
hijacker's demands was to ensure that Al-Musawi and Badr Badreddine - who were serving
life terms in Central Prison over the 1983 - were released. "When [Mughniya] called
for Al-Musawi's picture first, I realized that he was more important to Mughniya than
Saab," the social supervisor said.

Mustapha Badreddine remained in prison for a further two
years after that hijacking, however, until the 1990 Iraqi Invasion when he blew off the
door of his cell using explosives assembled from basic materials, including chicken bones,
salt and cockroaches. "Notes containing similar bomb-making instructions were found
on several inmates during Saab's detention," the official explained.

When asked about their sources, all the inmates said they
got them from Saab," he continued, adding that Badreddine was considered a headache
by the guards for many reasons, including his habit of "welding plastic pen lids into
door locks on a daily basis.

Ever since his escape, Badr Badreddine has risen steadily
in Hezbollah's ranks. He is believed to currently be Hezbollah's top military commander,
replacing his former brother-in-law, Imad Mughniya, who was assassinated in Damascus,
Syria in 2008. His contributions are perceived as essential to Hezbollah's military
advancement, mainly in the field recruiting people for the "resistance force" in
both Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as creating security
breaches in the Israeli army.